Military vehicles, such as personnel carriers and the like, include blast seats to protect the occupant from a blast occurring under the vehicle such as, for example, those caused by a landmine or improvised explosive device. Such blasts produce acceleration pulses that would be severely injurious to the seat occupant, including not only the initial blast but also the “slam-down” acceleration pulse that the occupant would be subjected to when the vehicle returns to the ground following the blast itself. Many currently known blast seat designs use a link which deforms when subjected to a force from an acceleration pulse. These devices are somewhat effective, but only work a single time and may not work well over a wide weight range of seat occupants.
Other known systems, such as those described by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,810,125 and 5,556,160, among others, utilize a dedicated set of sensors in conjunction with automated control mechanisms in order to dynamically adjust the force on the seat, for example, based upon weight considerations. These systems, however, are extremely complex in terms of their cost and manufacture.